Zack Wheeler’s Showing Caps a Bad Day for the Mets

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Mets shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera turning a double play against the Cubs on Monday. On Tuesday, Cabrera was placed on the 10-day disabled list with a sprained left thumb, the second time he has been on the D.L. with the injury.CreditJim McIsaac/Getty Images

By Wallace Matthews

June 13, 2017

The Mets have known all along that at some point this season, they would have to limit pitcher Zack Wheeler’s innings in deference to his right elbow, after Wheeler had Tommy John surgery in 2015 and took nearly two years to recover.

Manager Terry Collins has said several times this season that exactly how and when those limits would be enacted had yet to be determined.

But on Tuesday, the Chicago Cubs did their part to help Wheeler limit his innings.

The Cubs shot out to an 8-1 lead — mostly behind a seven-run second inning that lasted more than 30 minutes — before Wheeler could get six outs. Wheeler lasted one and two-thirds innings, the shortest outing of his major league career, and the eight runs were the most he had ever given up.

To add to the indignity, all seven second-inning runs scored after Wheeler had gotten two outs and was one strike away from ending the inning.

But after getting ahead of Anthony Rizzo, 0-2, with the bases loaded, Wheeler wound up walking Rizzo, forcing in a run. On the next pitch, second baseman Ian Happ hit a fastball over the fence in left-center field for his first career grand slam.

Suddenly, a game that entered the second inning tied, 1-1, was turning into a Cubs runaway. The next three Cubs also got hits, capped by Jason Heyward’s two-run double, which ended Wheeler’s night.

“I just didn’t feel it tonight,” Wheeler said. “I tried to find it out there, and I just couldn’t. I don’t know what it was, but I didn’t feel right. It’s no excuse — you’re supposed to find it when you’re out there and make an adjustment, but I couldn’t do that today.”

While the most damaging, Wheeler’s struggles were hardly unique among Mets pitchers. Heyward added a two-run homer off Josh Smoker in the sixth. Kris Bryant hit a solo shot off Neil Ramirez in the seventh. Javier Baez crushed a two-run homer off Josh Edgin in the ninth. The Cubs rolled to a 14-3 victory, ending a string of six straight Mets victories over the Cubs at Citi Field, including the first two games of the 2015 National League Championship Series.

In truth, the night had not started well for Wheeler — Rizzo belted his second pitch of the game well beyond the home run apple in center field, a blast measured at 462 feet. Wheeler had a chance to escape damage in the second when Cubs starter Jon Lester, a career .066 hitter who had two hits in 24 at-bats this season, came up with two outs, but Lester stroked a solid single to left to keep the inning alive for Albert Almora, Rizzo and Heyward. Lester (4-4, 3.89 E.R.A.) also worked seven innings, allowing one run on five hits and striking out 10.

“Stupid pitch,” Wheeler said of his throw to Lester. “Right down the middle. It was dumb.”

Wheeler’s abbreviated outing followed three starts in which he had lasted at least six innings and allowed three runs or fewer in each.

“He’s absolutely been saving us the way he’s been pitching lately,” Collins said. “Tonight, didn’t have much, didn’t have much command. The one guy he had to get out was Lester. Couldn’t get him out, and it might change the whole outcome of the game. Just one of those nights.”

Wheeler’s poor showing was the latest bit of bad news for the Mets on a day that had already had its share.

Before the game, the Mets announced that Asdrubal Cabrera, who had hit two home runs in Monday night’s 6-1 win over the Cubs, would return to the disabled list for the second time this season with persistent pain in his sprained left thumb.

And Michael Conforto, the team’s best all-around hitter, was out of the lineup for a second consecutive game with what the team called a stiff back.

On a positive note for the Mets, left fielder Yoenis Cespedes, who left Monday’s game in the eighth inning with pain in his left heel, felt well enough to return to the lineup, and he had hits in each of his first two at-bats, including a run-scoring double in the first inning that tied the game after Rizzo’s leadoff home run.

“It is a little bit frustrating,” Collins said of Cabrera’s injury. “He had a great game last night. And not just the home runs — he made two great plays defensively. This guy’s a good player. But you know what? It behooves him to make sure this thumb gets better. We need to get him better.”

Cabrera originally sustained the injury diving to make a catch in a game against the Miami Marlins on May 6. The discomfort in Cabrera’s thumb, which he indicated was just below its tip, is worse when Cabrera, a switch-hitting shortstop, bats right-handed.

That became glaringly apparent to Collins when Cabrera, who hit both of his home runs on Monday hitting left-handed against the right-handed starter John Lackey, tried to lay down a bunt when he batted right-handed late in the game against the lefty reliever Brian Duensing.

“A lot of people were asking me after the game, ‘Two home runs and you bunt?’” Cabrera said. “But it was hard for me to swing. It’s a lot of pain for me when I swing right-handed.”

Cespedes, who recently returned to action after spending six weeks on the D.L. with a hamstring strain, left Monday’s game in the fifth inning complaining of soreness in his left heel. But he told Collins before Tuesday’s game that he felt well enough to play.

“I said, ‘Good, get in there,”’ Collins said. After the game, Collins said Cespedes felt O.K. but would most likely sit out Wednesday’s game.

But even Cespedes’s good night came with a moment of consternation. After he was removed from the game in the sixth inning and replaced in left field by Curtis Granderson, the Mets felt it necessary to make the following announcement over the speaker in the press box: “Mets outfielder Yoenis Cespedes left the game because of the game situation.”

INSIDE PITCH

The Mets recalled infielder T.J. Rivera from Class AAA Las Vegas to replace Asdrubal Cabrera on the roster. Terry Collins said there had been no discussion of promoting Amed Rosario, the club’s top prospect, who is batting .377 for Las Vegas.

Correction:

An article in some editions on Wednesday about the Mets’ 14-3 loss to the Chicago Cubs misstated, in some copies, the number of innings that Zack Wheeler pitched for the Mets before being relieved. It was one and two-thirds innings, not one and one-third innings.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page B11 of the New York edition with the headline: Wheeler’s Catastrophe Caps Bad Day for Mets. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe